Guo Wengui busted by FBI in $1 billion fraud scheme: feds

An exiled Chinese billionaire and pal of former White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested by federal authorities Wednesday in a billion-dollar fraud scheme, prosecutors said.

Ho Wan Kwok, aka Guo Wengui and Miles Guo, allegedly duped thousands of online followers out of investments and spent the ill-gotten cash on lavish assets, including a $36,000 mattress, a $26.5 million New Jersey mansion and a $37 million yacht. 

Guo amassed a large online following after starting two nonprofits in 2018 that pushed his purported agenda of being critical of the Chinese Communist Party, the Justice Department said.

Guo and a co-conspirator, Kin Ming Je, then set up numerous business entities, including a media group, a loan program, and members-only luxury clubs, according to the indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. 

The alleged fraudster then sought investments in the businesses and siphoned off more than $1 billion given by thousands of his followers, the feds allege. 

He spent the cash on opulent goods, including the New Jersey mansion and a massive yacht. Guo also bought a $140,000 piano and stuffed $10 million in his spouse’s personal bank account, according to the indictment. 

“[Guo] is charged with lining his pockets with the money he stole, including buying himself, and his close relatives, a 50,000-square-foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari, and even two $36,000 mattresses, and financing a $37 million luxury yacht,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the charges were announced.

Guo is a business associate of Bannon, a former chief adviser to President Donald Trump. Bannon was arrested on a yacht owned by Guo in 2022 for his alleged role in a scheme to defraud investors of a plan to privately construct a US-Mexico border wall. 

Bannon was later pardoned by Trump.

Guo was hit with 12 counts for the fraud scheme Wednesday and faces a maximum of life in prison.